Benjamin Franklin’s diplomatic mission to France throughout the American Revolution is entrance and heart within the Apple + TV sequence Franklin, and the sequence star and govt producer Michael Douglas hit the Croisette in Cannes to speak up the present forward of its world premiere tonight on the Canneseries pageant.
Douglas advised a packed room of reporters on the Barriere Le Majestic resort that Cannes was the pure option to premiere the present that makes its international streaming premiere on Apple on Friday, April 12.
“That is the place our challenge is predicated. The story is about Benjamin Franklin coming to France to avoid wasting America,” mentioned Douglas. “We spent 165 capturing days in Paris and round France in 2022, and never solely is it primarily based on Franklin coming right here in 1776/7, however we filmed all of it in France, and it’s the least we are able to do to come back again right here to premiere it.”
Douglas is Cannes common. He was right here final 12 months for the movie pageant, the place he acquired an honorary Palme d’Or for his life’s work.
“I’ve been right here many, many occasions,” Douglas mentioned. “These are all tales I must inform after I die. I’ve great recollections right here.”
The story of Franklin begins in 1776 when Benjamin Franklin, 70 and a well-known inventor however with zero diplomatic coaching, travels to Paris to attempt to persuade the French monarchy to underwrite America’s experiment in democracy. Standing in his method are British spies, French informers and jealous colleagues. However Franklin prevailed, serving to to barter the Franco-American alliance of 1778 and the peace treaty with England in 1783.
America has loads to thank France for, mentioned Douglas. “I don’t assume individuals understand how a lot of a job France performed in saving our nation,” he famous. “[So] thanks for the Statue of Liberty and likewise for our nation.”
Franklin, primarily based on the non-fiction e-book A Nice Improvisation: Franklin, France, and the Start of America by Pulizter Prize-winning author Stacy Schiff is a co-production between Apple and ITV Studios America.
Two-time Emmy-winner Tim Van Patten (Band of Brothers, The Sopranos) directed the 8-episode restricted sequence, from a script by Kirk Ellis and Howard Korder. Govt producers embrace Philippe Maigret, Mark Mostyn, and Tony Krantz.
That is the second time Douglas has performed the founding father, having lent his voice to Franklin for an episode of the PBS sequence Freedom: A Historical past of US in 2003.
Douglas, like the opposite English-speaking actors in Franklin, together with Brits Noah Jupe and Daniel Mays, converse French within the sequence, as their real-life characters did whereas in Paris. For some, performing in a international language was a problem.
“It’s totally different filming in French,” mentioned Jupe, who admitted he hadn’t studied the language earlier than getting the position of Temple Franklin, Benjamin’s illegitimate grandson, within the sequence. “The rhythm is far totally different. It felt like singing. It felt extra expressive. I beloved performing in French.”
The 80-year-old Douglas famous that given the present state of American politics, and worldwide democracy, Franklin is greater than only a historical past lesson.
“It’s a nice reminder for me of how fragile Democracy is and the way beneficiant France was and is,” he mentioned.